Commercial air-travel is a careful coordination of many participants, process, circumstances, and equipment. Each participant, process, circumstance, equipment, alone or in some combination has the potential to affect some aspect of air-travel. Various aspects of air-travel include the movement of passengers, airplanes, flight crews, ground crews, ground equipment, flight paths, airport facilities, and the like.
Hereinafter, a participant, a process, a circumstance, an equipment, alone or in some combination, is collectively and interchangeably referred to as a “factor”. A variety of factors affect air-travel.
For example, bad weather can be a factor that causes flight delays, which cause passenger inconvenience, equipment and crew management problems, air-traffic congestion, and many other issues. As another example, a congested airspace can be another example factor which can cause flight delays, missed connections, congestion of ground handling equipment, and other problems. Pre-flight security processing of passengers and baggage can be another example factor that can cause flight delays, missed flights, passenger dissatisfaction, and many other undesirable effects.
It is generally desirable that an effect of a factor or a combination of factors, on an aspect of air-travel should be optimized. Stated another way, an adverse effect of a factor should be minimized, a desirable aspect should be maximized, or an aspect of air-travel should be selected according to the suitability for a given factor.
For example, if bad weather condition exists in one geographical area, it is generally desirable that the number of passengers that are adversely affected by the bad weather should be minimized. As another example, if fuel price exceeds a threshold, a utilization efficiency of the equipment fleet should be maximized.